Foreigners with a working Visa on Brazil, steps to get your documents in order.

One thing that every expat suffers when coming to Brazil with a working Visa is, got the Visa, now what?

Well, after you did everything on the Brazilian consulate or embassy on your country, and finally got your working visa, get here (I’m not being humorous at all, your working visa has a deadline, don`t waste time), after that you should follow 5 steps to get all your documentation in order.

Step 1- Go to the Federal Police (Polícia Federal or PF), as soon as you get in Brazil, bringing the following documents:

1- Passport

2- Copy of your entire passport

3- Your visa application

4- Your DOU* (diário official da união) publication:

4.1- DOU (the official gazette from the Brazilian Republic), to get this ask for someone at your work to provide it for you, it can be found here:http://portal.in.gov.br/ .

6- Two 3×4 pictures (don`t worry about the actual dimensions, just go anywhere in Brazil that take pictures and ask for a “Foto 3×4”, my advise, get them here, the people who take them know all the procedures, and because the government institutions in Brazil are quite frisky about how the photo should be like, so let’s not take any chances)

*ATTENTION, for you who got in Brazil from São Paulo, the airport of Guarulhos, is in the city of Guarulhos, not São Paulo, the same with Confins in Belo Horizonte.

Once you get everything from above ready, just go to a “Delegacia da Polícia Federal” and say you would like to get register on the Sistema Nacional de Cadastramento e Registro de Estrangeiro or simply “SINCRE” (quick observation here, you will hardly ever find anyone on the federal police with any substantial knowledge in English, so, ask for help from a Brazilian, learn some basic Portuguese or be prepared for a lot of mimic and writing down stuff).

After some fingerprinting and a lot of waiting they will give a little paper that you have to keep, just put it inside your passport and forget it there.

After a couple of days go back there and ask if the “SINCRE” is ready (this can take from 2 to 20 days, so call in advance), after you have the paper with all your information, the “SINCRE” (FYI: SINCRE means National system of registration of foreigners), go to step 2.

Step 2- After you get your “SINCRE” , go to any big post office (Agência dos Correios), and by big I mean that not all of the post offices do this, so, ask around for the main one, or a big one around you.

Get your “SINCRE”, your passport, address, around 20 Reais, go to a BIG post office and ask to pay the fee to get your CPF (kind of a social security number, you need it for everything), after you pay they will give you a piece of paper.

After that, take everything, SINCRE, passport and the piece of paper you got and go to a “Receita Federal” close to you, once you get there just say that you need to get your CPF number or “CPF para estrangeiro”.

Wait and when someone come to help you just show all the papers and get your own CPF number (hurray), with that go to step 3 (almost done).

Step 3- With your SINCRE, passport, CPF and address, go to the Ministério do Trabalho (Work ministry) closest to you and ask for your “Carteira de Trabalho de Estrangeiro”(foreign workers card), it is free of charge and gets ready in about 2 days normally (Brazilians are not very punctual), with it, you are almost done, just one more Step.

Step 4- After a couple of months (from 1 to 6) go back to the federal police and ask if your RNE (National Foreign Register, kind of a foreign ID card) is done, and when you have it, go to step 5.

Step 5- After everything you been through, all the waiting and headaches, now it’s time to enjoy the good parts of Brazil, you are DONE, got everything in order… until you have to get an extension on your working visa, then, go back to step 1 and good luck.